Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007

Acts 10: 34a, 37-43

1 Corinthians 5: 6b-8

John 20: 1-9

We are alive..We have come back from the dead!

Easter night is the center of the liturgical year. On this night, while hearing a long series of biblical readings, we recall the marvels that God, in his love and mercy, has wrought for us. We commemorate the essential events of the history of our salvation.

This night reminds us that the paschal rhythm is the rhythm of all creation which awaits total redemption according to Gods loving plan. Gods plan encounters resistance. Gods love, which refuses to impose the law with power, runs the risk of being refused. But God does not give up on fulfilling the work of salvation. In the act of giving his life, God shows the only power he chooses, the power of the fullness of love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son: This is the disconcerting but unique answer, the humble and sorrowful answer of a vulnerable God. A God who suffers for love, suffers from human misery, from evil that is committed and endured, in a world ravaged by war, racial conflict and the struggle for power and money. Disconcerting, sorrowful, humble response which is the unpredictable choice of the Father .

He is the Lord of life and death, for death has been conquered: Risen from among the dead, Christ dies no more; death has no more power over him. Let us receive this good news with an open heart, a hopeful heart, a joyous heart. We are alive and living, come back from the dead !